Gut Renovation

Gut Renovations in New York City

A full gut renovation involves ripping out the interior down to the studs and subfloor or joists. It often includes cabinets, walls, plumbing, electric, heating and air conditioning, fixtures, and floors. What you are left with is the structural skeleton of the space.

Whether you are working on an apartment within an existing building or renovating an entire townhome, you are making way for complete new living spaces. The final product may be a good investment piece of real estate or your dream home. Either way, this is not a light-hearted endeavor. 

You don’t just grab your sledgehammer and Sawzall and go to work. Your renovation project will involve careful attention to cost and timing. You need licenses and permits before you start tearing out the walls. You need to determine exactly what you want and create a road map to get you to your final destination. Then you need to analyze the structure to figure out which are the load-bearing walls. Is anything in good enough shape to leave intact?

Your Best Resource

Your best resource is a good architect like H2 Architects. We have the education, experience, and skills to guide you through all the pitfalls and surprises that come along during the renovation process. We can smooth the way with all the boards and commissions you will deal with. We help you select structural engineers and general contractors.

Demolition is just one step along the way to your destination. Your architect can help you plan, get permits, and execute the work. At that point, you will know how deep the work will go. For example, the tile and cabinets and plumbing may all need to come out of the bathroom. This is the case when the dimensions of the room are changing, the bathroom is being moved, or even if you are just renovating it at the same location.  

When you are dealing with an entire building, structural elements like the stairs can be relocated, or you may start all over by changing floor heights and pouring new concrete floors. Water damage from leaky roofs, bad plumbing, or fire damage may require you to replace some of the joists. The entire roof might be taken off. If zoning ordinances allow for the increase, here’s where you might raise the ceiling heights, add floors to the building, or add a rooftop terrace. 

In an apartment building with one or more elevators, you can’t tie them up all day with your debris. The times you can use it will be restricted, which requires the contractor to be well organized. They have to have all the debris lined up and ready to go when their time slot comes up.  A truck or container has to be waiting at the other end. This can be challenging in a heavily trafficked area and/or may require DOT permits.

Some buildings have elevator operators, or the superintendent has to run the elevator for safety reasons. All this must be carefully orchestrated because you are living and working with other inhabitants of the building.

Costs so far

Demolition is just the beginning of the renovation cost. Further costs include materials and labor for the entire project—electrical work, painting, carpentry and woodworking, plumbing, heating and air conditioning, tiling, and roofers—everything from cellar floor to roof. Then there are the extras you decide to throw in to custom fit your home to your own unique needs. Your costs might start at around $300 per square foot and go up from there.

Could design-build firms do the work faster or cheaper? It’s possible; however, they generally design what they build best. This may come at the expense of creative design solutions that fulfill your dreams.  It’s possible to run into surprises anytime during the project. These require creativity and strong communication between the architect, the workers, and the homeowner. This is where our team shines.

Real Estate Trends

With rising costs throughout the city, homeowners are always on the lookout for reasonably priced neighborhoods. Sunnyside, Queens, East Harlem in Manhattan, and Bushwick in Brooklyn are some examples. Young people migrate there for the convenient city access, lively culture and food scenes. 

Fixing up old buildings can bring good or bad changes to a neighborhood, depending on your point of view. On one hand, it prevents families from fleeing the city. Entire neighborhoods can see increases in their property values when an eyesore building is cleaned up. On the other hand, small businesses can be dislocated from the neighborhood. Locals may find housing unaffordable. This remains an issue to watch. Finding good, affordable housing has long been a problem in New York City, but it is becoming more of a crisis today. Gentrification is not a given, as more communities increase their job opportunities and support for local businesses. Education and outreach are vital elements of the campaign to support affordable housing and community cohesion. Keeping familiar landmarks, restaurants, shops–even people–in place is critical to the vitality of a neighborhood.  This all-important effort can be accomplished through public forums, media campaigns, and community outreach efforts.